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#1 2012-01-05 23:34:50

v43
Member
Registered: 2011-02-03
Posts: 140

Installing Arch Linux in VMware: missing vmblock module

i've installed arch linux in vmware workstation 8, and followed the wiki to improve the integration.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/In … _in_VMware

problem is the vmblock is missing. it can't be loaded nor with rc.conf neither recompiling the initframs.
i experienced the problem reported here during the installation of open-vm-tools-modules https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=130730


running /etc/rc.d/open-vm-tools start produces:

Starting Open Virtual Machine Tools [FAIL]

and this is what I get during startup (because I set a vmhgfs entry in fstab):

Mounting Local Filesystems [BUSY] modprobe: FATAL: Error inserting vmhgfs (/lib/modules/3.1.7-1-ARCH/extramodules/vmhgfs.ko.gz): Invalid argument [FAIL] 

Last edited by v43 (2012-01-12 20:04:09)

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#2 2012-01-07 06:07:23

v43
Member
Registered: 2011-02-03
Posts: 140

Re: Installing Arch Linux in VMware: missing vmblock module

bump smile

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#3 2012-01-08 09:27:12

ngoonee
Forum Fellow
From: Between Thailand and Singapore
Registered: 2009-03-17
Posts: 7,354

Re: Installing Arch Linux in VMware: missing vmblock module

Moved to Networking, Server, and Protection as requested by OP.

OP - if your thread isn't getting replies it normally isn't because it doesn't have enough visibility (Newbie Corner has the highest visibility).


Allan-Volunteer on the (topic being discussed) mailn lists. You never get the people who matters attention on the forums.
jasonwryan-Installing Arch is a measure of your literacy. Maintaining Arch is a measure of your diligence. Contributing to Arch is a measure of your competence.
Griemak-Bleeding edge, not bleeding flat. Edge denotes falls will occur from time to time. Bring your own parachute.

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#4 2012-01-12 17:08:07

fowler
Member
Registered: 2009-01-26
Posts: 152

Re: Installing Arch Linux in VMware: missing vmblock module

same issue for me

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#5 2012-01-13 02:14:08

furuutsuponchi
Member
Registered: 2012-01-13
Posts: 2

Re: Installing Arch Linux in VMware: missing vmblock module

Also having this issue. No luck solving it thus far sad

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#6 2012-01-14 03:20:15

furuutsuponchi
Member
Registered: 2012-01-13
Posts: 2

Re: Installing Arch Linux in VMware: missing vmblock module

Made a little more progress..

I can insmod the modules in /lib/modules/extramodules-3.1-ARCH after un-gunzipping them like so:
sudo insmod vmblock.ko
sudo insmod vmci.ko
sudo insmod vmsync.ko

But I can't insmod vmhgfs.ko. I get the following errors in dmesg:
vmhgfs: no symbol version for VMCIDatagram_Send
vmhgfs: Unknown symbol VMCIDatagram_Send (err- 22)
vmhgfs: no symbol version for VMCIDatagram_DestroyHnd
vmhgfs: Unknown symbol VMCIDatagram_DestroyHnd (err- 22)
vmhgfs: no symbol version for VMCIDatagram_CreateHnd
vmhgfs: Unknown symbol VMCIDatagram_CreateHnd (err- 22)

Unsure what this means. Anyone else had any luck?

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#7 2012-01-22 03:40:15

v43
Member
Registered: 2011-02-03
Posts: 140

Re: Installing Arch Linux in VMware: missing vmblock module

i see that the open-vm-tools and open-vm-tools-modules had been updated, and wanna thank whoever did that.

however, i still can't start the open-vm-tools daemon.
how can i get details on the cause of failure?


i also tried to manually install the official package from vmware, but i hadn't the skills nor the luck smile

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#8 2012-01-27 18:39:07

kennethadammiller
Member
Registered: 2012-01-27
Posts: 5

Re: Installing Arch Linux in VMware: missing vmblock module

v43, I would like to note that to install the official package from vmware, you'll need to go to settings > install vmware tools > then in the linux shell sudo mkdir /mnt/cd ; sudo mount /dev/sr0 /mnt/cd and just cd /mnt/cd ; cp * ~ ; cd ~ ; gunzip *gz ; tar -xf *tar ; cd vmware* ; ./*.pl

I would like to note that I already tried to do this, but when I went to specify the location of the kernel headers, it couldn't find it. I tried to do pacman -S kernel-header and linux headers and all kinds of other stuff, but it doesn't work. I'm pretty sure that I had the right thing installed, in /lib/modules/3.2.../build/include, but when I typed that in the vmware tools config where it was asking for the location of the headers it said it was wrong. IDK.

Also on your question on how you can get more details on the cause of the failure, you can do sudo strace /etc/rc.d/open-vm-tools. I should also note that open-vm-tools is not a binary. it's a shell script. you can do vi /etc/rc.d/open-vm if you sequentially execute the script, you'll find that it just fails neatly in the beginning of it. I would note that the two scripts it tries to execute in the beginning /etc/rc.d/functions and /etc/rc.d/conf don't exist. Maybe that has something to do with it, but I know for certain that the following test is causing the failure:

modprobe vmblock                 -> returns 127 on my machine
if [ $? -gt 0 ]; then
stat_fail

that's it right there: modprobe is returning some information about what's currently in the system and the test is saying that it failed because of what modprobe couldn't do. This I'm saying speculatively. I don't know what the error code 127 represents. I don't have copy paste for my vm because of this, so someone should paste the /etc/rc.d/open-vm-tools script here after my post.

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#9 2012-01-27 18:50:16

kennethadammiller
Member
Registered: 2012-01-27
Posts: 5

Re: Installing Arch Linux in VMware: missing vmblock module

oh wait. I think I sequentially executed the script wrong. I got $? was equal to 1 when [ $? -gt 0 ] because the line [ -z "$VMBLOCK" ] && didn't complete the modprobe vmblock, it stopped at the -z part.

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#10 2012-01-27 21:35:42

v43
Member
Registered: 2011-02-03
Posts: 140

Re: Installing Arch Linux in VMware: missing vmblock module

when i tried to install the default package, it required files and folders which aren't part of Archlinux but I bet can be found in other linux distributions. i tried a workaround, which failed, but i didn't bother trying to hack the install script (also because as a personal policy i only install software from the official repositories and aur).


after a recent update of open-vm-tools-modules vmblock can be issued with modprobe and no error is reported.
open-vm-tools has been updated too, but it still fails to start on my machine.

I would note that the two scripts it tries to execute in the beginning /etc/rc.d/functions and /etc/rc.d/conf don't exist.

i'll check it later

Last edited by v43 (2012-01-27 21:36:51)

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#11 2012-01-30 16:36:41

nullptr
Member
Registered: 2012-01-30
Posts: 1

Re: Installing Arch Linux in VMware: missing vmblock module

I ran into this problem as well.  I believe it is caused by a binary version incompatibility between the kernel and packaged open vm tools modules.  Here's how I fixed it.

1) Sync ABS (search the wiki if you don't know what this is).

2) Use makepkg to build a new community/open-vm-tools-modules package against your current kernel --- for me, this is 3.2.2-1.

3) The startup script for open-vm-tools (/etc/rc.d/open-vm-tools) is a bit buggy IMHO in how it brings things down.  In particular, it requires that all modules it expects to have loaded when bringing open vm tools up are still present when bringing them down.  Since vmhgfs.ko was never loaded due to the binary incompatibility, it reports a FAIL condition for the entire process when this is entirely avoidable.  This is a bit of a FAIL itself, I think.

So, you need to manually bring things down by doing:

# umount /proc/fs/vmblock/mountPoint
# rmmod vmblock
# rmmod vmci

Then, you should be able to bring things back up with /etc/rc.d/open-vm-tools start.

Or, you can just reboot your system after installing your locally-compiled open-vm-tools-modules package.

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#12 2012-01-30 20:11:53

v43
Member
Registered: 2011-02-03
Posts: 140

Re: Installing Arch Linux in VMware: missing vmblock module

thank you! that fixed it!! big_smile

Last edited by v43 (2012-01-30 20:12:07)

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#13 2012-01-31 03:15:56

tweed
Member
Registered: 2011-03-18
Posts: 21

Re: Installing Arch Linux in VMware: missing vmblock module

Thanks for the great info.

I've still got a fail for open-vm-tools-modules.
Not startable anymore.


Used ABS and successfully rebuilt both the tools and the modules.

No change still fails to start after reboot and also have tried the umount and rmmod tricks. very interesting.

I have a question as an aside. I am running arch within vmware and have NOT mounted the standard tools,
extracted and run the install script.

I don't need to use any part of vmware's regularly accompanying tools do I?

open-vm-tools and open-vm-modules allows me to have all the features of ARCH linux runnning in a virtual machine
(currently with windows host) WITHOUT needing to install vmware's tools as they come stock with the program?

And of course all the above is to get the tools working (and understood better) so that shared folders will work etc.


many thanks everyone!

Last edited by tweed (2012-01-31 05:13:43)

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#14 2012-01-31 06:46:34

v43
Member
Registered: 2011-02-03
Posts: 140

Re: Installing Arch Linux in VMware: missing vmblock module

at first i got the same problem..
so..

i edited my rc.conf, fstab and .xinitrc to remove any reference to vmware daemons, mounting points and stuff.
rebooted.
reinstalled the new compiled binaries
# umount /proc/fs/vmblock/mountPoint
# rmmod vmblock
# rmmod vmci
restored all the settings i previously removed.
rebooted.
smiled!

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#15 2012-01-31 08:55:17

tweed
Member
Registered: 2011-03-18
Posts: 21

Re: Installing Arch Linux in VMware: missing vmblock module

motivated to try again today based on all the work/info here and of course the post above.... Thanks all!

I've been getting a bit stale on some techniques.
So, i believe that even though I did build the packages after ABS sync using makepkg it appears as though
I should have used pacman -U to install from the build directory as apparently I was installing the old packages.


That and removing open-vm-tools from rc.conf etc. etc. as noted above.

all fine. using start.

woohoo!

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#16 2012-02-01 14:47:17

kennethadammiller
Member
Registered: 2012-01-27
Posts: 5

Re: Installing Arch Linux in VMware: missing vmblock module

Does anyone know how to edit the repository that contains this so that future users will not even have to find this wiki, it will just show up in an update on open-vm-tools?

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#17 2012-02-05 21:31:41

Stijn
Member
Registered: 2012-02-05
Posts: 1

Re: Installing Arch Linux in VMware: missing vmblock module

nullptr, thanks for the info.
I had been wanting to try Arch Linux, and tonight http://www.digitalmars.com/d/archives/d … 21815.html convinced me to do it.
Took me a while to learn about ABS, create a user for makepkg, install linux-headers, create the package and installing it. But VMware Tools is starting now, so all is good.

P.S. the anti-bot question on the forum registration page isn't very nice to Windows users running a virtual Arch Linux, no copy-paste available smile

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#18 2012-02-14 23:39:29

scrib3
Member
Registered: 2009-11-11
Posts: 2

Re: Installing Arch Linux in VMware: missing vmblock module

Hey folks, I just wanted to add to this post to say that the latest open-vm-tools does not work with workstation 8, I get a fail when trying to start as well


[   13.390193] vmhgfs: no symbol version for VMCIDatagram_Send
[   13.390196] vmhgfs: Unknown symbol VMCIDatagram_Send (err -22)
[   13.390276] vmhgfs: no symbol version for VMCIDatagram_DestroyHnd
[   13.390278] vmhgfs: Unknown symbol VMCIDatagram_DestroyHnd (err -22)
[   13.390285] vmhgfs: no symbol version for VMCIDatagram_CreateHnd
[   13.390286] vmhgfs: Unknown symbol VMCIDatagram_CreateHnd (err -22)

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#19 2012-02-14 23:48:16

v43
Member
Registered: 2011-02-03
Posts: 140

Re: Installing Arch Linux in VMware: missing vmblock module

i'm using workstation 8 with updated open-vm-tools and i've never seen those errors.. have you tried the procedure *nullptr* reported in this thread?

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#20 2012-02-28 20:56:04

markusl
Member
Registered: 2012-02-28
Posts: 2

Re: Installing Arch Linux in VMware: missing vmblock module

I'm trying to use open-vm-tools and hitting the same problem that others have encountered.  I've learnt about ABS and used it to build my own package, which I've installed using pacman:

[msl@archie ~]$ sudo pacman -Qi open-vm-tools
Password: 
Name           : open-vm-tools
Version        : 2011.12.20-2
URL            : http://open-vm-tools.sourceforge.net/
Licenses       : LGPL
Groups         : None
Provides       : None
Depends On     : open-vm-tools-modules  libdnet  icu  procps  glib2  uriparser  libsigc++  libxss
Optional Deps  : gtkmm
                 libnotify
                 libxtst
                 fuse
                 libsm
Required By    : None
Conflicts With : None
Replaces       : None
Installed Size : 3660.00 KiB
Packager       : Unknown Packager
Architecture   : i686
Build Date     : Tue Feb 28 19:36:34 2012
Install Date   : Tue Feb 28 20:33:34 2012
Install Reason : Explicitly installed
Install Script : Yes
Description    : The Open Virtual Machine Tools (open-vm-tools) are the open source implementation of VMware Tools.

I've uninstalled the home-built package, rebooted and reinstalled several times.  Despite all this, I still hit the infamous message:

[msl@archie ~]$ sudo modprobe vmhgfs
ERROR: could not insert 'vmhgfs': Invalid argument
[msl@archie ~]$

Googling hasn't helped, beyond bringing me to this page.  Is there anything else to try?

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#21 2012-02-29 04:49:13

sunaku
Member
From: /dev/tty
Registered: 2010-09-29
Posts: 140
Website

Re: Installing Arch Linux in VMware: missing vmblock module

markusl wrote:

I've uninstalled the home-built package, rebooted and reinstalled several times.  Despite all this, I still hit the infamous message:

[msl@archie ~]$ sudo modprobe vmhgfs
ERROR: could not insert 'vmhgfs': Invalid argument

I was having the same problem and found a solution:  we need to build both open-vm-tools and open-vm-tools-modules from ABS.  Also, make sure to install them both simultaneously (not one after the other) using the same pacman command; otherwise pacman will fetch the wrong (old) version from the arch repositories:

sudo pacman -U ~/abs/open-vm-tools{,-modules}/*.xz

After that, the modprobe command works correctly.  Cheers! big_smile

Last edited by sunaku (2012-02-29 04:51:59)

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#22 2012-02-29 11:21:35

jgrocho
Member
Registered: 2012-02-29
Posts: 1

Re: Installing Arch Linux in VMware: missing vmblock module

I had to remove -j3 from my MAKEFLAGS variable in /etc/makepkg.conf before locally built packages would work.

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#23 2012-02-29 23:52:23

markusl
Member
Registered: 2012-02-28
Posts: 2

Re: Installing Arch Linux in VMware: missing vmblock module

Thanks, sunaku: compiling both packages and installing them simultaneously did the trick.

jgrocho, I found I could compile with -j2 without problems.  I've not tried -j3.  But I know from other contexts that not all makefiles support concurrency perfectly.

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#24 2012-03-01 19:49:54

crouse
Arch Linux f@h Team Member
From: Iowa - USA
Registered: 2006-08-19
Posts: 907
Website

Re: Installing Arch Linux in VMware: missing vmblock module

https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/28222
https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/28062
https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/28109


Personally, don't have time to mess with this right now, but it sure is an irritating BUG.  This shouldn't happen,  open-vm-tools and modules should show up new everytime the kernel upgrades, or it's going to fail... and having it in the community repos not working on a vanilla install just aint cool. 

I may  have to look at scripting something to automate this on my machines, too many machines to have this keep failing on every kernel upgrade.

Edit:

I flagged these out of date in Packages.  If that was incorrect, someone please correct me wink  Thanks.

i686 	Community 	open-vm-tools 	2011.12.20-2 	The Open Virtual Machine Tools (open-vm-tools) are the open source implementation of VMware Tools. 	2012-01-26 	2012-03-01
x86_64 	Community 	open-vm-tools 	2011.12.20-2 	The Open Virtual Machine Tools (open-vm-tools) are the open source implementation of VMware Tools. 	2012-01-26 	2012-03-01
i686 	Community 	open-vm-tools-modules 	2011.12.20-3 	kernel modules for the open source implementation of VMware Tools 	2012-01-18 	2012-03-01
x86_64 	Community 	open-vm-tools-modules 	2011.12.20-3 	kernel modules for the open source implementation of VMware Tools 	2012-01-18 	2012-03-01

Last edited by crouse (2012-03-01 20:07:35)

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